text formatting: links, smilies, etc

This page lists the special formatting and facilities which are available in every comment / post / message box on the system:

(in this section, what you should type in the text box is shown like this)

links

[345] where 345 is the page id (the number in the url)

or [345 link text]

or [http://blah.com/whatever link text]

or just http://whatever.com

smilies

smile :) or :-)

laugh :D or :-D

razz :P or :-P or :p or :-p

rage :C or :-C or :c or :-c

wink ;) or ;-)

indifferent :I or :-I or :| or :-|

rolleye 8-)

confused :-/ or :\\ or :-\\ or :Q or :-Q

question :?

exclaim :!

sad :( or :-(

: cry :< or :-<

shocked :O or :-O or :o or :-o

: evil :> or :->

cool B) or B-)

love :X or :-X or :x or :-x or []

innocent O:) or O:-)

blush :* or :-*

quotes

use < and > to quote text, like this:

<this is quoted text> gives this is quoted text

With this method, you can quote several lines or paragraphs together.

Another method is to start a line or paragraph with >:

>this is quoted text

will give

this is quoted text

This quotes only the immediate line or paragraph following the >.

headers

start the line beneath a heading with --- or ===

tables

start line with | and separate the columns with |

|A|B|C|one|two|three

will look like this:

A

B

C

one

two

three

lists

start each item line with - or #

- item 1- item 2- item 3

gives:

item 1

item 2

item 3

# item 1# item 2# item 3

gives:

item 1

item 2

item 3

You can nest lists within lists, using indentation (spaces before the start character).

styles

character

effect

_

underline

~

italic

^

bold

*

strong

+

big

%

small

style whole lines or paragraphs by starting them with style characters:

_ underlined paragraphgives:underlined paragraph

~ italic para :italic para

^ bold para :bold para

* strong para :strong para

+ big para :big para

% small para :small para

+* big and strong combined :big and strong combined

style individual words by prefixing them with style characters:

style one word like +this or +this+ : style one word like this or this

+^ combine a big bold para with a ~word in italics :combine a big bold para with a word in italics+*~ big strong italic para with %small word : big strong italic para with small word here are %^small_bold words and +~big_italic words : here are small bold words and big italic words

you can *style_several_words_by_joining_them_with_underlines :you can style several words by joining them with underlines

or they can be ^joined^with^styles ~like~this :or they can be joined with styleslike this

every word ^style or ^%style_combination must have a space before it : every word style or style combination must have a space before it otherwise they%remain%visible : otherwise they%remain%visible

* paragraph styles must not have any spaces before them, or we see the style characters rather than the style.

The asterix can still be used conventionally*, as can the % as in 100%.

Any style character: _ ~ ^ * + % can still be used as that character, if it has spaces before and after it.

% * with spaces before and after the asterix, we can still have a conventional footnote (styled small, in this case) : * with spaces before and after the asterix, we can still have a conventional footnote (styled small, in this case)